Alert implements in Alsaka

Portugese health IT firm Alert has completed its first US implementation after going live at an initial clinic within the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC).

SEARHC became the first health organisation in the United States to launch the Alert Clinic software program at its Ethel Lund Medical Centre in Juneau.

The Alert Clinic program will provide electronic health records for the approximately 21,000 patients who visit the Ethel Lund Medical Center each year on an outpatient basis. The Alert Clinic software program is an electronic health record for ambulatory care clinics.

The Ethel Lund Medical Center is the first SEARHC facility to begin using a comprehensive electronic health record for all patient encounters.

Now whenever a patient visits the Ethel Lund Medical Center in Juneau, medical staff are able to use a computer to access a complete patient record that includes lab results, medical imaging tests, medication records, chronic disease prevention and case management records and more.

The Ethel Lund Medical Center provides health services in family medicine, optometry, behavioral health, physical therapy, nutrition, disease prevention, wellness, specialty medicine and other fields, and ALERT Clinic brings all of those patient records into one comprehensive system.

When SEARHC’s systems transformation project is finished in 2011, medical staff at any of SEARHC’s facilities will be able to access and update patient electronic health records in real time using Alert.

The SEARHC systems transformation project started in 2008, when SEARHC launched several standalone computer programs for its business, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology and other functions. Alert will enable the organisation to bring all of the clinical programs into one comprehensive system.

Alert Clinic is already in use in seven other countries in Europe, Asia and South America.